Yii2: Simultaneous authentication between frontend and API - php

Question

I've turned the backend into an API. And the API controllers have HttpBasicAuth type authentication.
The problem is that even after authentication in the frontend, whenever a request is made to the API, the authentication window appears.
How can I do so that when the user authenticates in the frontend, is not requested again the username and password of access when a request is made to the API?
Example a controller in API:
class CategoryController extends ActiveController
{
public $modelClass = 'api\models\Category';
public function behaviors()
{
$behaviors = parent::behaviors();
$behaviors['authenticator'] = [
'class' => CompositeAuth::className(),
'authMethods' => [
[
'class' => HttpBasicAuth::className(),
'auth' => function($username, $password) {
$out = null;
$user = \common\models\User::findByUsername($username);
if ($user != null) {
if ($user->validatePassword($password)) $out = $user;
}
return $out;
}
],
],
];
return $behaviors;
}
}

Answer 1

It is called sharing sessions. It also depends on if your tier apps (frontend and api) are both in the same domain. If it is, configure your frontend and api settings (<app>/frontend/config/main.php and <app>/api/config/main.php) as follow:
'components' => [
...
'request' => [
'csrfParam' => '_csrf-shared',
],
...
'user' => [
'identityClass' => 'common\models\User',
'enableAutoLogin' => true,
'identityCookie' => ['name' => '_identity-shared', 'httpOnly' => true],
],
...
'session' => [
'name' => 'advanced-shared',
],
...
It means you save cookies and session with the same name, so that when you login in frontend, and go to backend/api, the backend side fetches same cookies, therefore you'll be detected as authenticated user.
Here one important note, in order to enableAutoLogin work for both tiers, you should set same cookieValidationKey for both main-local.php settings. You can just set them manually, or edit init.php file to generate one cookieValidationKey for all tiers. (Just make sure you know what you're doing).
By the way, I think it's not a good idea to make simultaneous authentication between frontend and api. If it's frontend and backend then it's still bearable, but api interaction is different compared to frontend.
I suggest to use headers like Authorization: Bearer <token>.. You can get more information about it here Yii2 Rest Authentication
Update
I assume this is what you need.. Create a class, i.e. ApiAuth in common/components folder and paste the following code:
<?php
namespace common\components;
use yii\filters\auth\HttpBasicAuth;
class ApiAuth extends HttpBasicAuth
{
/**
* #inheritdoc
*/
public function authenticate($user, $request, $response)
{
if ($user->identity) {
return $user->identity;
}
return parent::authenticate($user, $request, $response);
}
}
This class extends from yii\filters\auth\HttpBasicAuth. Before calling a browser prompt it checks whether user->dentity is populated. If so, no promt is required.
In your Controller behavior replace HttpBasicAuth with ApiAuth class:
use common\components\ApiAuth;
...
'authMethods' => [
[
'class' => ApiAuth::className(),
'auth' => function($username, $password) {
...

Answer 2

As the user is already authenticated, then I just set the "AccessControl" for connected users. If they are not connected they will receive code 403 instead of 401.
This solves the problem:
class CategoryController extends ActiveController
{
public $modelClass = 'api\models\Category';
public function behaviors()
{
$behaviors = parent::behaviors();
$behaviors['access'] = [
'class' => \yii\filters\AccessControl::className(),
'rules' => [
[
'allow' => true,
'roles' => ['#'],
],
],
];
return $behaviors;
}
}